Software AG and Dell have unveiled a new Internet of Things architecture that allows enterprises to perform real-time streaming analytics at the edge of the network, close to digital devices and sensors. Dell’s award-winning Edge Gateway 5000 Series, designed for edge operations in extreme conditions, has been qualified with an embedded version of Software AG’s leading Apama Streaming Analytics. Performing real-time analytics on the edge can drastically reduce the cost of high volume industrial IoT sensor traffic and the need for expensive central servers. This architecture also allows for the rapid deployment of edge analytics and, given the low per unit cost for companies to leverage Dell Edge Gateways, the cost of IoT projects can be significantly reduced and a return on IoT investments accelerated. This first joint Dell and Software AG solution focuses on Preventative and Predictive Maintenance, with further IoT use case solutions to follow in the near future. “This brings a new dimension and meaning to leading-edge technology”, said Software AG SVP Global Alliances & Channel Frank Schiewer. “With Dell, we are bringing the competitive advantages driven by the Internet of Things to a much wider audience through reduced costs and increased adoption speed. Co-innovation is the name of the IoT game and this is a great example of two innovative companies partnering to provide ground breaking solutions. I look forward to widening the scope of this partnership over the coming months.”
Together, Dell and Software AG have created a Predictive Maintenance Blueprint entitled “Six steps to using the IoT to deliver maintenance efficiency” to help companies address their top operational challenges. This ensures that perishable data is acted on immediately by generating alerts, implementing an automated response on the Edge and ensuring that only meaningful data is sent to the cloud to minimize consumption of network bandwidth. This reduced data set can be integrated with historical data at the core and longer term trends and events identified and predicted. “With our partners such as Software AG, we are lowering the barriers to IoT market entry for enterprises of all sizes and cutting the time needed to deploy IoT analytics significantly,” said Jason Shepherd, director, strategy and partnerships, Dell. “The IoT can now deliver its promise quickly, cost effectively and make a real contribution to driving economic growth”.
With estimates ranging from 15 to 40 billion new sensors being installed by 2020, it is imperative that real-time streaming analytics, driving automated decisions and responses, be located as near to the Edge as possible. The architectural benefits of distributed real-time analytics are decreased latency times for real-time events, a significant reduction in network traffic and a reduction in the central server power needed to cope with tens or hundreds of thousands of sensors. This fully scalable and flexible new architecture makes decisions on the Edge when appropriate and at the core when needed.
“Software AG always focuses on keeping customer choice open and the solutions built on this new architecture offers the customer maximum flexibility in building IoT applications”, continued Frank Schiewer. A common set of streaming analytic tools at the edge and in the core and automated decisions made where needed combines effectiveness with efficiency”.
